Mitzner is the head of the litigation department at Pavia & Harcourt
in midtown Manhattan, the firm where Sonia Sotomayor practiced
before she was appointed to the bench.

PriorsA Conflict of Interest (2011) and A Case of Redemption (2013)

Evidence In Mitzner’s third standalone legal thriller set in New York City, a prominent
defense attorney, Aaron Littman, is blackmailed into representing the most hated man
in America, a blend of Mafia don, radical terrorist, and Madoff-like Ponzi schemer.
Testimony“The legal system is like the ultimate sporting event, with two competitors going at it,” Mitzner says. “But the stakes [can be] as high as they get—life
and death.” He believes that readers are much more savvy about the legal system than
ever, making it “a challenge for writers to keep coming up with things that are new
and exciting.” ◗

Nick Stone

The Verdict (Pegasus, Dec.)

Stone, who is half Haitian and half Scottish, believes that he’s the only
Anglo-Haitian legal thriller writer around. The Verdict has been
optioned for a TV series in the U.K. by the production company
behind Foyle’s War.

EvidenceA London legal clerk, Terry Flynt, has to help defend a multimillionaire
charged with the murder of a young woman found in his hotel suite.

Testimony Stone’s experience clerking at the Old Bailey a decade ago as part of the
defense team on several murder trials gave him the idea for The Verdict. “Clerks and
those working at the lower end of the justice system are quasi-invisible,” he says. “And
no one sees more and goes further than someone you don’t notice.” ◗

Garret Holms

Grant of Immunity (e-book, Jan.)

Holms is the pseudonym of a judge in Los Angeles who has also
worked as defense attorney and as prosecutor. He self-published Grant
of Immunity, his fiction debut.

PriorsNone

Evidence In this intricately plotted novel of suspense, L.A. judge Daniel Hart is confronted by a cop he’d seen commit a vicious murder decades before, but whom he was
too scared to implicate.

Testimony Holms regards the courtroom as the perfect backdrop for a thriller. “It’s
where tempers fly and tensions flare. It’s where the human condition is tested, the place
where people unravel and try to become whole again as they defend their own versions
of what they perceive to be the truth.” He plans a series of novels with a judge (not
necessarily Hart) as the lead, noting that judges are often secondary figures in legal
thrillers, and he intends to counter public perceptions that judges are “cold, aloof,
impatient, rude, and punitive.” ◗